58 Elmendorf and Luloff: Attitudes of Key Informants About Open Space Conservation market surrounded by the multiple agendas and pressures of growth. Public Participation The interviewees talked about the need for public involve- ment and support for open space conservation. Sixty-six per- cent of the informants replied that if people want open space conserved, they need to become more active in government. Back in 1962, Clawson had described the weakest link in open space conservation as the lack of an organized and effective public interest group. A public interest group or “Voice” (Fortmann and Kusel 1990) is especially important where there are multiple growth issues (e.g., construction of major roads, new schools, and large-scale commercial and subdivision development) already on the agenda of often overwhelmed citizens, planners, and elected officials. With- out public interest and action, open space conservation in fast-growing places does not receive significant attention and simply becomes the per-chance residual of ongoing develop- ment (Austin and Potter 2003). Again, decades ago, in the 1960s, Clawson (1962) and McHarg (1969) believed that open space conservation was not seen as an important politi- cal or social issue, that public apathy was extreme, and that citizen advocacy for open space conservation, and the re- quired land use planning, was ineffective and insufficient. These interviews provided evidence that long-standing con- cerns remain about the public’s willingness and ability to participate in open space conservation and other important community decisions. As one informant said, “When people see the words ‘planning’ or ‘preservation,’ they feel that means it’s going to be there for eternity. They see green trees and corn and they think they’ll always be there. Residents have a false sense of security.” Another stated, “You hear a universal complaint amongst professionals in public admin- istration [that] the public doesn’t participate.” CONCLUSIONS The key informant interviews were completed to gather in- formation on the attitudes of community leaders toward open space conservation. Unfortunately, the key informant inter- view process did have a negative component. Specifically, some leaders viewed the investigator as a biased advocate of municipal consolidation or regionalization. They refused to be interviewed, did not complete their interviews in a helpful manner, and encouraged other leaders not to participate. However, such types of confrontation can be anticipated when conducting face-to-face key informant interviews with a broad group of people. For the most part, these problems were dealt with in face-to-face discussions with distrustful individuals that attempted to clarify the reasons for the study. To increase the relevancy and quality of information, inter- viewers must make every effort to reduce the degree of per- sonal bias they interject during the interview process. This ©2006 International Society of Arboriculture can be done by consistently using a well-constructed inter- view schedule and by listening rather than engaging in lead- ing questions and dialog. The interviews provided an opportunity for a deeper un- derstanding of the attitudes toward and the issues surrounding open space conservation in a growing place. Clawson (1962, p. 124) surmised, “a sense of loss of treasured open space is a common American emotional experience today.” During the interviews, a tone of concern became apparent about not only open space conservation, but also the changing nature of the Spring Creek watershed. This concern is probably not unlike others found in places experiencing rapid growth and change, as discussed in the “boom town” literature (Wilkin- son et al. 1982). As one interviewee said, “Suddenly the world has awaken to this place as a little gem in the middle of Pennsylvania and decided it was going to be a retail Mecca.” Another participant stated, “People are relatively happy, but I don’t think that is anything our township has done. I think it is just something that just hasn’t happened yet.” Identifying this type of tone is exactly why key infor- mant interviews are valuable and why they should be com- pleted. A number of open space benefits associated with mental and physical health, those associated with community and community development, and those associated with eco- nomic benefits were not discussed by the vast majority of participants. It is very likely that a person’s understanding of positive open space benefits is related to a positive attitude about the importance of its conservation. Perhaps the current public and private efforts at educating people about the ben- efits of open space and other natural resources have not been totally successful and should be examined and modified. These interviews also provided evidence that concerns ex- pressed by experienced planners since the 1960s about using land use planning for open space conservation in growing areas remain today. The vast majority of leaders did not dis- cuss planning tools that could be used for conservation but thought that land use planning simply was not working to conserve open space. It is clear that for meaningful conser- vation, open space must be planned for and financed in growth, much like state departments of transportation plan among municipalities for highways and local municipalities plan for schools, roads, and other assets (Benedict 2000; McMahon 2000). Randall Arendt (1994) described a combi- nation of regulatory and nonregulatory steps that could be used for open space planning and conservation: • Understanding and documentation of open space re- sources. • Understanding growth and development in municipal and county comprehensive plans. • Including open space conservation as an element in com- prehensive plans.
March 2006
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